Today as I have been posting daft photos and being busy preparing for Christmas events, news has unfolded of tragedy across the Atlantic.  Sometimes I think we forget that whilst the events recorded in the gospels were unfolding, the rest of the world carried on as normal, life and death, tragedy and triumph...

A couple of things have come to mind, firstly the Jeremiah quoted by Matthew after the slaughter of the innocents

This is what the LORD says: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more."

And this song, of which this is the least annoying recording I can find...

Comfort your people, Lord

Parents whose children have been slaughtered

Children orphaned by human inhumanity

Comfort your people, Lord

And forgive us our complicity in injustice

And our impotence in the face of evil

Comfort us

And give us new hope

Amen